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How to never complete anything

ewanvalentine.io

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Re: How to never complete anything

#2

Post by mdpopescu »

I disagree. Experimentation is an important part of learning and yes, initially there's a lot of "wooo, shiny!" going on. It doesn't matter - you are STILL learning.

It also helps to remember that software projects are never finished - only abandoned.

Re: How to never complete anything

#3

Post by daemonk »

mdpopescu wrote: post #2

I disagree. Experimentation is an important part of learning and yes, initially there's a lot of "wooo, shiny!" going on. It doesn't matter - you are STILL learning. It also helps to remember that software projects are never finished - only abandoned.

I think the author of the post was trying to say that he has disproportionally allocated his time from finishing projects to just learning new things. There needs to be a good balance between keeping up to date with technology and producing something from the technology.

Re: How to never complete anything

#4

Post by asimjalis »

I feel you’ve been on the right track all along. Instead of doing the opposite on the programming side you might need to do the opposite on the product and selling side. Instead of building something you have no passion for look for ways to sell what you have already created. In other words see if you can productize your "auto-scaling, multi-zone, cloud infrastructure". There’s definitely other people who would like to use that.

Or teach people how to use the new shiny thing.

Or help them decide the pros and cons of new technologies by talking about the subtle distinctions you have noticed between them through your experimentation.

Re: How to never complete anything

#7

Post by drchiu »

It depends on your goal. Is your side project aiming to become a side business or an experimentation to learn new things? If it's a business, it's important to get things done. If it's for fun and to experiment, sometimes the end goal is not to actually complete it. The endeavour itself will be reward enough, perhaps.

It's true that a lot of programmers do jump from shiny new tech to the next shiny new tech. If it's to start a business, it's probably best to stick with boring stacks.

Re: How to never complete anything

#9

Post by doc_holliday »

The number one thing to remember is almost no one cares what tech you used. Just get it shipped.

People have built million dollar business that had it's first iteration in MS Excel, if it is useful to someone and kind of serves the purpose then that is enough for a start.

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